Joffrey Ballet moving performances to Lyric Opera House in 2020

Dancers from the Joffrey Ballet at a dress rehearsal of the Lyric Opera's production of Gluck's "Orphee et Eurydice," which opens at the Lyric Opera House on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017.

Dancers from the Joffrey Ballet at a dress rehearsal of the Lyric Opera's production of Gluck's "Orphee et Eurydice," which opens at the Lyric Opera House on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

In a major cooperative effort by the city’s leading producers of ballet and opera, the Joffrey Ballet and Lyric Opera of Chicago announced Friday that the dance company will move its season residencies from the Auditorium Theatre to the Lyric Opera House, beginning in fall 2020.

The venue shift, a seven-year rental agreement, will end roughly two decades of Joffrey residencies at the venerable Auditorium, where it has performed each season since 1998.

Although scheduling has yet to be worked out, plans are for the Joffrey and Lyric to alternate performances, the ballet company performing one week, the opera the next. The Joffrey will continue to present its customary holiday block of “Nutcracker” performances at the Lyric-owned opera house during the December dates when no operas are scheduled.

The Joffrey typically gives up to 68 performances of mixed repertory in its winter and spring seasons, while the Lyric mounts some 60 main stage performances of eight operas, about 20 performances of classic musicals and various Lyric Unlimited events during its season, which runs from late September until mid-May.

Discussions between the companies about Lyric’s sharing its 3,563-seat theater with the Joffrey began about a year ago but became more focused during their current collaboration on director-choreographer-designer John Neumeier’s new production of Gluck’s “Orphee et Eurydice,” set to open Saturday night, said Ashley Wheater, the Joffrey’s artistic director, and Anthony Freud, general director, president and CEO of Lyric Opera, in separate interviews.

The ballet’s decision to shift venues was spurred by the advantages that working in a stage house with state-of-the-art technical facilities affords Joffrey artistic personnel as they plan repertory in the long range, said Wheater, the company’s artistic chief since 2007.

He indicated the Joffrey has no dissatisfaction with the Auditorium management. The ballet troupe will remain in residence there through the 2019-20 season.

“Being the resident company at the Lyric Opera House is a fantastic opportunity that allows us to think about the productions we want to present” in a more technically sophisticated way, Wheater said. “I am enjoying my relationship with Anthony and Lyric very much. It’s wonderful to see what his company is producing.”

For his part, Freud said, “This feels like a very natural fit, one that I think will provide real benefits for our two organizations and hopefully create a whole new public.

“The shared hope is that our audiences will not only coexist but overlap. I find it extremely exciting that we will be welcoming into the opera house tens of thousands of ballet lovers each year. This will allow us to take our place alongside the great opera houses of the world that provide audiences with a regular diet of opera and ballet.”

While conceding that meshing respective performance dates and artistic agendas will be “a complex jigsaw,” Freud said he doesn’t foresee logistical problems. “Alternating between opera and ballet productions is no more complicated than presenting operas in repertory, which is what we do,” he said.

Although rental rates at the Lyric-owned opera house and the 3,875-seat Auditorium are comparable, the Joffrey expects to reduce production costs at the opera house because of that theater’s modern backstage and scenery loading facilities, said Joffrey deputy director Kathleen Hechinger.

Becoming the resident ballet at Lyric Opera will mark a certain rounding of the Chicago circle for the Joffrey. The troupe premiered its ballet "Billboards," set to music by rock star Prince, at the former Civic Opera House in 1992, three years before it left its home in New York to take up permanent residence in Chicago.

Tania Castroverde Moskalenko, CEO of the Auditorium Theatre, said the first she learned of the Joffrey’s impending move was on Thursday afternoon when the Tribune attempted to reach her for comment. She later received official confirmation of the relocation from Joffrey executive director Greg Cameron, she added.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we will fill the dates” to be given up by the Joffrey at the Auditorium, Moskalenko said. The ballet company’s departure “provides an opportunity for the Auditorium to create new and exciting programming in Chicago. We are committed to continue presenting world-class international and national dance companies on our stage.”

The Joffrey is scheduled to present 63 performances this season at the Auditorium, the Dankmar Adler/Louis Sullivan-designed facility that opened in 1889 and has undergone numerous renovations and changes of management over the years.